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Higher up the scale in Canon’s new range of Pixma printers is the MG6150, an all-in-one device that combines print, scan and copy functionality in a sleek black chassis that boasts a 3-inch colour display that can be tilted upwards for better visibility.

This takes a slightly different approach to most rivals and isn’t a touchscreen display in itself, but is innovatively complemented by touch-sensitive controls that light-up on the top panel to control the particular feature that is being accessed. This is a really nice approach, adding both to the aesthetic factor and in offering a good level of usability. The screen itself is vibrant and clear, and offers good access to the configuration settings available, being a healthy alternative to the regular print settings dialogs.

Elsewhere the exterior is effectively devoid of controls and in terms of connectivity you’ll find standard USB and wireless print options, a multi-card reader and USB/PictBridge port for direct printing. There’s a 150-sheet output tray and a 150-sheet input tray at the rear, and these are both well designed to offer sufficient support for paper and tuck neatly away when not in use. Automatic duplex printing comes as standard and there’s the option to add a Bluetooth dongle for wireless printing straight from compatible devices.

Canon quotes speeds of up to 12.5ppm for black and white prints and 9.3ppm for colour. In our tests this was actually fairly accurate, and we reached 9ppm for a 10-page document print, rising only slightly to just under 10ppm at draft setting. Quality is superb however, with crisp, fine details and accurate text recreation at the smallest visible font sizes. In addition, draft setting should be easily good enough for most uses, and only loses a negligible amount of contrast.

In terms of photo printing, a full A4 borderless snap at the highest settings took just over 2 minutes, and we were very impressed by the quality here as well. Colours are vibrant and crisp, and though images were slightly darker than we’d hoped, retain their contrast and sharpness well in comparison to the original. This level of quality should be perfectly suitable for most and is pretty comparable to professional-standard output.

Scans weren’t quite as impressive but should still be suitable for most applications. At around 30 seconds to return a recreation on screen the device is fairly fast, and though colours are quite accurate results are again a little dark and there’s a slight grainy hue over images that does detract slightly from their vibrancy.

Canon’s suggested retail price for the MG6150 is £199, but with significant discounts available online users can expect to save around 25% on the price. In this light this is an extremely attractive proposition, where a combination of excellent usability, impressive performance and a sleek design makes it a versatile choice for home or home office user.

Verdict

The Pixma MG6150 is nicely designed, very easy to set-up and use and is flexible enough to handle the majority of output tasks for the modern consumer. When taking into account the discounts available online we think it would be a good choice for those who are looking to improve productivity in the home for both document and photo printing, scanning and copying.